Dream Makers

A couple taps into endurance - theirs and other runners' - to help underprivileged kids.

Adriana and Matt Anderson's average day is like a marathon. They rise most mornings at 6:30 to work as management consultants in Washington, D.C. They return to their Alexandria, Virginia, apartment at 7 p.m. and head out for a run. Afterward, their second shift starts. They're often at the dining-room table until 2 a.m., working on High Cloud Foundation, a nonprofit running organization they founded a year ago to send food and supplies to poor children in South America, Africa, the Middle East, and India.

It helps that Adriana and Matt have the endurance and energy of marathoners-Adriana's current tally is 19; Matt's is 38. In fact, the sport is what inspired them to create High Cloud (so named to invoke dreams without limits). "Running has given us confidence, strength, endurance, and a deep belief that anything is possible if you are persistent and go beyond your comfort zone," says Adriana, 26. "We realized that we could use running to make a difference in other people's lives."

In fact, the couple decided running would be the primary vehicle to raise money for their foundation. Members of the High Cloud Running Team collect pledges as they train for 5-Ks, 10-Ks, half-marathons, marathons, and triathlons. In exchange for their fund-raising dollars, runners receive training programs from certified coaches who donate their services to High Cloud. The running team currently has more than 100 members around the world, and anyone can join the team by choosing a race and collecting pledges as they train. Runners cover their expenses so that 100 percent of the money raised goes to the cause.

A Rooted Connection

The couple met in 1999 as college freshmen at William & Mary. Adriana, who was born in Colombia, had fled the violent civil war that had gripped her country to stay with friends in Virginia. Her English was poor, and on the first day of classes, she wandered into the wrong room and took the only empty seat-next to her future husband.

Although Adriana had run along the Andes Mountains as a kid, it was Matt who introduced her to marathons. During their junior year, Matt persuaded her to run the Marine Corps Marathon. It took her six hours to complete, but she was hooked. Since then, she's received a master's degree in public policy, learned English, as well as Italian and French, and set a 3:28 marathon PR.

Seven years after she left Colombia, Adriana returned for the first time. The conditions were jarring, especially to Matt. "The poverty is severe," says Matt 28. "They have almost no food, no water, no transportation. If they have shoes, they're lucky."

Each time they returned to Colombia, they filled their suitcases with supplies from friends and churches and whatever they could afford to buy themselves. "It got to the point where our luggage was full of donations," Adriana says. "We wouldn't carry any of our own clothes."

One day in November 2007, when their one-bedroom apartment was completely filled with donations, they decided to expand their operation. In its first year, High Cloud has raised $70,000 and has provided supplies and food to dozens of schools and orphanages and presented educational, nutritional, environmental, and sports programs.

"One of the things that inspired me to join was that the money goes directly to help kids," says Maribel Ramos, of Alexandria, Virginia, who raised money for High Cloud while training for October's Marine Corps Marathon, and delivered supplies to Peru in August. "We brought the kids books, crayons, markers, a soccer ball, and helped them start a book club."

Adriana and Matt run marathons almost monthly to raise awareness and recruit new High Cloud members, but they get new running shoes about as often as they get eight hours of sleep. "We never go out for dinner or anything like that," Matt says. "Everything is for High Cloud." Famously energetic-and frugal-among their friends, the Andersons never miss a fund-raising opportunity. They even collect $3 per person for a dinner of Ramen noodles at their apartment. And they donate whatever they can from their salaries after they've paid the bills each month. "We have a lot of energy and passion to do what we love to do," Adriana says. "Runners can visualize that every step they take in a race is really making a difference in the lives of these children."